A Single Vikings Decision and The Huge Difference Along the D-Line
In fairness, using hindsight isn’t fair. Even the best NFL decision makers can’t defeat the insight that’s gleaned by watching reality unfold. There is, nevertheless, some merit in looking at the Vikings decisions that led to such a befuddling, bumbling Vikings season.
GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah always had reasons for the decisions he made. At times, the decisions Adofo-Mensah made were met with widespread applause. Too often, though, did Minnesota’s top executive fail to make the correct call for a team that had high expectations. Adjusting just a single factor, such as the Harrison Phillips trade, could have been sufficient to tip the scales in Minnesota’s favor.
A Single Vikings Decision
DT Jonathan Allen is a great leader who has had a great career. However, signing him hasn’t aged particularly well.
Right now, Allen is showing up with a $23,866,666 cap charge. Cutting him is an option, but the downside involves seeing $17,333,334 calcify as dead money. Only $6,533,332 gets freed up with a straightforward cut, an amount that does help but that doesn’t qualify as a huge financial windfall.
Sticking with Horrible Harry may have been more prudent.
The rugged defensive tackle got scooped up as a free agent in the 2022 offseason. He then entrenched himself as a key part of the winning formula, a leader to emulate for his commitment toward fulfilling his job from within the scheme.
What made him valuable was his excellence defending the run. Nobody could mistake him for Pat Williams or Linval Joseph — recent run gobblers at the middle of Minnesota’s d-line — but Phillips followed in their footsteps as someone who soaked up blockers while being tough to move.
Building around a DT group of Harrison Phillips, Jalen Redmond, and then Javon Hargrave would have been far better.
Phillips would be the run stuffer, Hargrave the pass rusher, and Redmond the all-around talent. Minnesota would then lean on Levi Drake Rodriguez, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Elijah Williams, and Taki Taimaini to do the rest of the work.
Instead, the Allen and Hargrave twosome became the featured pair before Redmond proved to be better than both. Allen, a well-rounded player, was out there for a pile of snaps but isn’t the run stuffer that Phillips is.
At the end of the day, the Vikings need to confront the reality of where they find themselves. Part of the issue of their current reality is the cap constraints that are partially imposed by Allen’s three-year deal worth $51 million. Living up to expectations means that the deal is a bargain, but falling short means paying for an older veteran who doesn’t make a huge difference in the middle.
The Vikings have often been at their best when the d-line has been ferocious (Purple People Eaters, John Randle’s dominant days, Williams Wall, the Zimmer era). Getting back to that level is an ambitious goal and yet one that has a history of tried and true success for the Vikings.
If Harrison Phillips gets dropped by the Jets, the Vikings should welcome him back to the Twin Cities. He could get plugged back into the middle of the defense on early downs to shutdown the other teams’ talented runners.
